Château Clerc Milon Rothschild, 5ème Cru Classé, Pauillac, 2023
Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy, the supremely talented Technical Director responsible for Baron Philippe de Rothschild's three Bordeaux chateaux has crafted an exquisite range of wines, which marry generous, textural fruit with gloriously precise aromatics and velvety tannins. The 2023 Clerc Milon, the third vintage made in the new winery includes 17% press wines. Splendid aromatics with suggestions of coal dust, dark cherry and sweet earth mingling with aromas of graphite, flowers and tobacco leaf. Complex and composed; this is a grown up, refined Clerc packed with sweet mulberry fruit and ferrous notes. There's a real generosity to the fruit, yet it remains taut, compact and focussed with complex, powdery tannins providing touches of bitter chocolate, griotte and salts on the finish. 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 6.5% Cabernet Franc, 1.5% Carmenère and 1% Petit Verdot.
critic reviews
The 2023 Clerc Milon, which was bottled in June 2025, is based around the 72% Cabernet Sauvignon. This takes a few moments to really cohere on the nose, delivering quite intense black fruit laced with that leitmotif for the vintage, graphite and pencil shavings, rendering it more classical in style than recent vintages. The palate is medium-bodied with firm grip, a little more body than the d'Armailhac, very well balanced with real weight and depth on the sapid finish. Excellent.
Pauillac was close to normal rainfall, with less mildew than other parts of the region, helping to usher in the excellent crop of wines that you will find in the appellation in 2023. This joins the best of them with its superb quality, and a real sense of excitement and drive. Expect vivacity and tension in the blue and black fruits, with liqourice root, squid ink, salted cracker, white pepper spice and freshly cut herbs. September 7 to 29 for harvest, 55% new oak barrels for ageing. Carmanère dating from 1947 is in this 1st wine, with the massal selection descendents in Pastourelle. Caroline Artaud director.
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2023 Clerc Milon features flamboyant notes of blackcurrant pastilles, boysenberries, and fresh plums plus hints of licorice, lilacs, and underbrush. The medium-bodied palate is bright and breezy, with approachable fine-grained tannins and bags of freshness, finishing with a skip in its step. The blend is 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 6.5% Cabernet Franc, 1.5% Carmenere, and 1% Petit Verdot, with pH 3.83. The alcohol is 13.5%.
Revealing aromas of red berries, cherries and blackcurrants mingled with hints of pencil shavings and new oak, the 2023 Clerc Milon is medium to full-bodied, deep and fleshy, with a layered core of fruit, sweet velvety tannins and a seamless, succulent profile. It's a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 6.5% Cabernet Franc and the balance Carmenere and Petit Verdot.